Prologue Bookshop opened November 21 at 841 N. High St. in Columbus, Ohio. Owner Dan Brewster expressed his appreciation for community support the following day on Facebook, noting: "This first bookstore Thanksgiving, there are so many people I'm thankful for, who have provided so much support over the last year to help Prologue Bookshop get off the ground. Thank you to my parents, family, and friends for all their great support, especially when things have gotten tough. Thanks to the bookstore owners and associates I've met along the way, including those at the Paz training in Florida. Thanks to the wonderful folks at the Ohio SBDC and Short North Alliance, who have been incredibly helpful in making connections and getting me through some tough spots. Finally, thanks to my great staff, who I'm already incredibly grateful to be working with every day." Chloe, one of Prologue's booksellers, offered a brief video tour of the shop.
Last week, Brewster told the Columbus Dispatch that his experience at "Bookstore Boot Camp," sponsored by Paz & Associates and the American Booksellers Association, was a key aspect of his preparation: "It's instructed by other people interested in the same path you are. That can be really powerful. To a degree, you're all nuts, but you're nuts together. A lot of us have the same motivation and we learned what has worked, because indie stores are making sense and making profits again."
Brewster "hired a bookstore-specific design team to help craft the 1,100-square-foot store to fit the upscale and touristy Short North," the Dispatch noted.
"These days you can't open a new store and have it look very generic. You have to be unique and special and, I hate to say it, Instagram appealing, a place I want people to know I was visiting," Brewster said. "It's not all about bestsellers, although we will have those, but what are the books that people are discovering. That's the whole value proposition of bookstores now. You want to be surprised, which is not something you get from walking into a Target book aisle, or going on Amazon. It's something you don't know you want--that's key."